2008.07.21 07:00 - Seeing the Path

Table of contents

No headers

That morning, at 7
am SLT, I met Gaya in the pavilion. Knowing that she was on European
time, I greeted her accordingly. Gaya was wearing “Emotional Wreck” as
group title.

Pema Pera: Good afternoon, Gaya!
Pema Pera: Lovely shades of green, in your flowing clothes
Gaya Ethaniel: oh hello Pema thanks :)
Pema Pera: And I hope your emotional wreck is only a passing title :>)
Gaya Ethaniel: oh… best to read my latest profile and group charter to get a close meaning to what i’m trying to do with it
Pema Pera: Hi, yes, just read it!
Pema Pera: metaphorical ways of speaking are so interesting, aren’t they.
Gaya Ethaniel: hope it makes sense a little why i’m wearing it
Pema Pera: we know what a ship wreck is, or a car wreck, and it is
fascinating to see what aspecs of that we transfer to, for example,
emotional situations
Gaya Ethaniel: yes a friend said somewhere to be reborn
Pema Pera: Yes, a ship or a car can be wrecked
Pema Pera: but can a cloud be wrecked?
Pema Pera: can a gentle breeze be wrecked?
Pema Pera: what do we want to be?
Gaya Ethaniel: little difficult in my mind when comparing nature with man-made things
Pema Pera: Hi doug!
Gaya Ethaniel: with metta
doug Sosa: morning!
doug Sosa: so to speak.

Doug dropped by, and being in California in RL, it truly was morning
for him. Almost at the same time, Adelene stopped by as well. It was
her first visit.

doug Sosa: it is interesting that the light here just matches the light at my home.
Gaya Ethaniel: Embodiment… Adelene that’s an intriguing word
Adelene Dawner: Yup. :) I can’t claim credit for it, though. My friend Mark - Threedee, here - uses the concept.
Adelene Dawner: It references the idea that you can’t really work with
the mind and the body as two separate entities - they’re too closely
entwined.
Pema Pera: yes, indeed!
doug Sosa: the idea that they might be seprate is really strange
Pema Pera: Have you been to our group before, Adelene, Play as Being?
Adelene Dawner: Most people try, though. The phrase “all in my head” is
a good example - as if something that’s happening mentally is somehow
less real than something that’s happening physically.
Adelene Dawner: And no, I haven’t :)
Pema Pera: yes, like when people talk about “my brain feels this and that”
Pema Pera: a very strange expression, but heard more and more these days
Adelene Dawner: mm. Not that there aren’t useful things to note about
‘where’ a sensation is coming from, but the original location is less
important than the meaning.
Pema Pera: Adelene, we get together here four times a day, to talk
about a simple kind of exploration we do, a kind of mini-meditation, 9
seconds every 15 minutes ; see http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/
Adelene Dawner looks
doug Sosa: the economy wnts to divide you out from the rest of the
world, so that you see the world as if an independent atom, easily
manipulated.
Adelene Dawner scoffs.
doug Sosa: “as if you wer an..
Adelene Dawner sighs. “I’m having trouble with the web page - it’s on
my end. Could you give me a more concise description, Pema?”
Pema Pera: oh sure, I’d be happy to

I summarized Play as Being.

Pema Pera: The idea is simple
Pema Pera: for a few hours a day
Pema Pera: you pay 1% of your time in a kind of time tax
Pema Pera: 9 seconds each fifteen minutes
Pema Pera: During that time you stop what you’re doing, or at least drop your exclusive focus on it
Pema Pera: and instead you look at what is
Pema Pera: or what you are
Pema Pera: or at “I am”
Pema Pera: and one way to do that is to look at what you have
Pema Pera: we normally say “I am a plumber” instead of “I have the profession of plumber”
Pema Pera: we say “I am English” instead of “I have the English nationality”
Pema Pera: so if we try to rigorously scrutinize all that we have
Pema Pera: then we may see what is left over, as what we are
Pema Pera: temporarily shifting focus away from what we have
Adelene Dawner: Now *that* sounds interesting and useful.
Pema Pera: temporarily dropping the role play
Pema Pera: and the remaining 99% we can play all our roles as much as we like, in RL and SL both
Pema Pera: Here in SL we get together four times a day
Pema Pera: to talk about our experiences in RL in the four times an hour practice:
Pema Pera: 1 am 7 am 1 pm 7 pm SLT
Pema Pera: Thank you, glad to hear that!
Pema Pera: If you’d like to try it, you can start right here, just pick a 9-sec interval :-)
Adelene Dawner is not sure if a 9-second interval is appropriate to her
rather nonstandard brain-function-mode (autistic, in this incarnation)
but will find a good modification of the useful base premise.
Pema Pera: you may want to just play with it for a few days, and then if you like, you can share with us what happened
Pema Pera: or what kind of questions you have about it
doug Sosa: this time when i tried it things stayed the same but the space around them became much more real and present.
Adelene Dawner: mm-hmm :)
doug Sosa: adelene, seems you will get this quick
Adelene Dawner: It won’t surprise me if I do, no.
Pema Pera: may I ask, Adelene, how you feel about SL, given what you described as your autistic function-mode?
Adelene Dawner: That’s a very broad question, Pema, could you be more specific?
doug Sosa: bell. i must depart.
Adelene Dawner: c’ya, doug.

Doug left, and Adelene talked about being autistic in a free and open way that I found very inspiring.

Pema Pera: I am fascinated by the similarities and differences between
RL and SL and dreams and movies and other ways of representing reality
Pema Pera: and I wonder whether your mode of functioning makes the
transitions between those modes different than they may be perceived by
others
Adelene Dawner: I consider SL to be ‘real’, as much as anything else is
‘real’. The laws of physics are different and more comfortable here, as
are the rules and limits of social interactions.
Pema Pera: it may be a very difficult question to answer — since each of us only directly experiences his or her own transitions
Pema Pera: Yes, one thing many of us here in this group agree about is
that RL and SL are surprisingly similar, more than most people in SL
seem to think
Adelene Dawner: … similar how? (Not disagreeing, mostly just not sure quite what you mean.)
Pema Pera: similar in being “real” in some important way, as you said
Adelene Dawner: That, yes.
Pema Pera: and also similar in the sense that the most fundamental questions we are dealing with carry over here very much.
Adelene Dawner: Any world with humans will be similar in that way.
Pema Pera: we cannot eat and drink here, for example, but our greatest
anxieties and hopes and yearnings and quests and worries we carry with
us through transitions between RL and SL and into dreams and so on
Gaya Ethaniel hasn’t decided on how similar SL and RL are
Adelene Dawner nods. “Those things are intrinsic to being human… or
being a person, to be more accurate… the world in which we spend our
time doesn’t and can’t change them.
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: and perhaps we can even go one step further
Pema Pera: from the roles we play (in RL and SL) to the human being we
are to something even wider, dropping the “role” that we play when we
say we are a human being
Pema Pera: the widest we can perhaps experience is to identify ourselves in some way with Being
Pema Pera: the totality of Being
Pema Pera: of what is
Pema Pera: and as soon as we can some taste of that, we see that it is actually Being that is playing the role of me
Pema Pera: but to get started, if we identify ourselves with our current role
Adelene Dawner chuckles. “That’s almost exactly what I was thinking of
when I said that your meditation was useful. I actually identify more
closely with being autistic than being human, and ‘being autistic’ was
the first thing that I thought of when you said “[7:21] Pema Pera: and
one way to do that is to look at what you have [7:22] Pema Pera: we
normally say “I am a plumber” instead of “I have the profession of
plumber”
Pema Pera: we can try to “play as Being” before letting Being play as us — hence the title of our little initiative here
Pema Pera: oh, that’s fascinating, Adelene!
Gaya Ethaniel has been pondering about Being being bigger than herself
Pema Pera: Thank you for sharing that with us
Pema Pera: does the possibility of dropping the roles of both human and
autistic mean anything, appealing or not, or does that sound totally
impossible?
Pema Pera: Gaya, perhaps Being is both the biggest and the smallest . . . in some sense
Gaya Ethaniel: yes… it’s kind of indescribable in words for me at the moment

Adelene gave a vivid description of our exploration.

Adelene Dawner: It doesn’t sound impossible, but I don’t know what it
would mean… I see the path, but I don’t know what’s at the end of it,
if that makes sense. But I see that it’s a good path to explore.
Pema Pera: wonderful, Adelene!
Pema Pera: I think you’ve come to the right place here :)
Adelene Dawner: Yes :D
Gaya Ethaniel nods
Pema Pera: I hope you will join us, since it is clear you are both open
to these ideas and have worked with them already, in thinking the
through to some extent
Pema Pera: We have a very collaborative attitude, we all learn from each other
Pema Pera: you can be both teacher and student here, as we all are :-)
Adelene Dawner: I think I will. I may be able to make the 7pm meetings on a daily basis.
Pema Pera: Something tells us we can learn a lot from you
Pema Pera: as you from us
Adelene Dawner nods.
Pema Pera: ah, this is the bell
Pema Pera: every 15 minutes here too :)
Pema Pera: but Gaya here only joined us ten days or so ago, I believe
Pema Pera: is that right, Gaya?
Gaya Ethaniel: yes since 11th July
Pema Pera: the amazing thing about Play as Being, PaB for short, is
that I have seen so many people here really getting deeply into it
right in the first week they come here.
Pema Pera: That’s what happened to you too, Gaya, wasn’t it?
Gaya Ethaniel: yes then i went sort of ‘madness’ period where my mind is too noisy
Adelene Dawner: The format seems good for that. I was at another
buddhist group place yesterday - they were so busy reading quotes from
a book that every time the conversation started to gain depth, the
leader cut it off. I was not pleased. :(

I explained about the notion of guardians.

Pema Pera: we have no leader here :)
Pema Pera: we have a group of “guardians”
Adelene Dawner: :D
Pema Pera: Both Gaya and I are guardians
Pema Pera: what that means is that for each session, one of us guarantees to be here
Pema Pera: to “guard” the time and the place
Pema Pera: to make sure that at least one person is here at this place at each time
Pema Pera: 1 am 7 am 1 pm 7 pm
Gaya Ethaniel: and everyone gets some sleep in shift
Pema Pera: so that people who come by for the first time always find someone to talk with
Adelene Dawner: good :)
Pema Pera: yes, Gaya, very important :)
Gaya Ethaniel nods
Pema Pera: Gaya was amazingly quick in becoming guardian :-)
Pema Pera: most people spend a number of weeks exploring what we do
Pema Pera: and if they really like it, and continue to come, they may take on that role
Gaya Ethaniel: Adelene one has choice to delay/refuse - no obligation to accept if we approach anyone for guaridan roleAdelene
Dawner: hmm. Either one of my neighbors is baking chocolate chip
cookies, or the deep parts of my brain are expressing happiness at
having found this place. Either seems likely.
Pema Pera: perhaps your lucky day, and both are true :-)
Adelene Dawner: :D
Gaya Ethaniel: could be ours too
Pema Pera: yes!
Adelene Dawner: As to the guardian role - I may be willing at some
point, but I’m not sure that my schedule is reliable enough to take on
the responsibility.
Pema Pera: oh sure, no rush at all, Adelene
Pema Pera: and there are people who come regularly who are not guardians
Pema Pera: I mainly mentioned this in contrast to having a leader
Adelene Dawner: mm-hmm. I like it.
Gaya Ethaniel: and it’s not a job for life Adelene - everyone has a choice
Pema Pera: Although I started this initiative in April, I don’t consider myself a leader
Pema Pera: I consider myself pretty friendly — but if you want to see me angry, try calling me “leader” a few times, hehe
Adelene Dawner chuckles. “I couldn’t even guarantee that I’ll be here
tomorrow, much less next month or next year. Planning ahead… not a
strong suit here.”
Gaya Ethaniel whispers leader
Pema Pera: Pema reaches for his guns
Pema Pera realizes his inventory is a mess . . . and no guns
Gaya Ethaniel: just do what your heart tells you Adelene - in regards to what we do here, that doesn’t mean much
Gaya Ethaniel: in this sense
Gaya Ethaniel breathes sigh of relief
Pema Pera: hahaha

I commented on the bird shape of Adelene’s avatar, and the many purple feathers.

Pema Pera: You have a wonderful outfit, Adelene
Adelene Dawner nods. “I’m sure I’ll be around, now that I’ve found you.”
Pema Pera: did you find that somewhere
Pema Pera: or made part of it?
Adelene Dawner: Thanks, Pema. :)
Adelene Dawner: It’s a conglomeration of several bits and pieces from
different avatars from Grendel’s Children, which I modified.
Pema Pera: it nicely combines the two ends of the spectrum, like a unity between opposites in a colorful way
Pema Pera: oh, wow, you made it yourself then, impressive!
Adelene Dawner: and actually, while I’m thinking of it, let me switch to my usual coloring. :)
Gaya Ethaniel: yes, never seen anything similar before
Pema Pera: oh, before I forget, we like to include our discussions on
our blog on the web, do you mind if we include our conversation there
too?
Adelene Dawner: Go ahead :)
Pema Pera: thank you!
Pema Pera: different coloring?
Adelene Dawner: The black is more intense, not as suitable for
introducing myself in a neww, unknown place. But it’s more comfortable
for me.
Pema Pera: (btw, I have to leave in a minute, to an astronomy meeting, also in SL, one of my professional activities here)
Gaya Ethaniel: good day Pema thanks for coming
Adelene Dawner nods.
Pema Pera: Black like a New Yorker :)
Pema Pera: I live in New York, and half the people there were only black, it seems
Gaya Ethaniel: hope to see you again Adelene - i must be going also
Pema Pera: Thanks, Adelene and Gaya, for coming over!
Gaya Ethaniel: with metta
Pema Pera: See you both soon again
Adelene Dawner: Ok. I’ll be back later, I think :)
Pema Pera: with metta :)